I’ve been sitting with this thought for a while now, mostly because it affects me directly.
Companies are under pressure to do something with AI. I don’t think most of them fully know what that something is yet, but they feel like they have to move, whether because the board is asking, or the competitor announced something, or just because it feels irresponsible not to. Some of them genuinely believe it’ll help. Some are just following the herd. Most are a mix of both and they’re figuring it out as they go. Which is fine, honestly. That’s how a lot of things get adopted in tech. You move before you have the full picture and you course-correct later.
The problem is that UX designers are sitting right in the middle of all this uncertainty, and the job market is reflecting it in ways that feel pretty unfair.
Teams are getting leaner. When a company does open a design role, they want someone who is visibly comfortable with AI, or at minimum someone who says the right things about being open …
